Metal Chink in the System
by twisterGlitch
Summary: The Links twins are the children of scientists working in the engineering company, Links-And-Chains. Young and naive they might be, but not for long. During their cross-country road trip, they stumble across Tuefort, which might be interconnected with the mysterious LAC corp. Soon, RED, BLU, and the young adults discover what the LAC really is about, and who they really are.
1. A Riddle

**Here I am...out of the deep with a TF2 story. Check my profile to see why I was gone for such a while.**

**Read and Review, anything at all is completely appreciated. **

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It was an incredibly hot and sticky day, in the sense of the word where a freshly ironed hairdo can frizz in thirty seconds flat, ice cream melts in even less that time, and cars who don't have any freaking AC serve as basic, metal, mobile greenhouses. Those mobile greenhouses could also be used as a human oven.

Nikki was already trapped in between two enormous suitcases, one of her brother's, and her's. Little-to-no air made it that much worse, as did the fact they were driving in the middle of Texas. As in absolutely nowhere.

Eddie Links looked back at his sister, pouring with sweat. "You okay back there?" He asks, redundantly.

"Well, no, Ed, I don't really think I am."

Eddie flashed a grin in her direction, shifting and taking his eyes off the endless stretch of road for a moment."Just hang in there a sec, there's supposed to be a gas station a few miles from here...we can stop there." He turned back around, his reassuring smile flitting away. The desert hills stretched for miles, maybe even a couple red mountains in the distance, but for all the vision in the world, he couldn't see a single human being, stop, or car.

Nikki sighed. "I don't really see the point of making a shortcut through Texas...we could have just as easily gone up north, yaknow. Colorado's still not checked off. And it has _snow._" The girl leaned back in her seat, and for a few brief moments relished in her own mind, dancing about in a tank top and shorts in freezing, shiver-inducing, snow.

"And are you the one payin' for gas?"

"At least half of it."

"Yeah, okay."

An introduction to the Links twins. They aren't actual twins, just your regular siblings, but they might as well be. Eddie James Links, at the age of twenty-five, and his sister, Nikki Anna Links at twenty-two. Both had coffee skin and icy eyes that stood out quite a bit. Eddie was the darker of the two, with his near-black, curly hair and a ghost of facial hair on his chin and around his mouth. He had a medium build, while his sister was quite skinny. She had fairer hair, with a back-length mane that looked made of caramel. Her eyes were covered with thick, oval glasses. The twins both had a slight smatter of freckles a shade darker than their own skin across their noses.

About a year ago, they had decided for the summer of 2013, they were going on a gigantic road trip to California and traversing the coast for the next three months. It was huge trip, and it was going to cost a slight fortune no matter what path they took, but with their parents and a few million extra jobs for them to chip in on the way, they got through with twenty thousand. And even then, they'd have to be lenient with it.

The Links family was known for being having fantastic luck with money, but it was really all due to their parents and their huge-as-hell company, Links And Chains, which had nothing to do with Links and/or Chains, respectively.

LAC specialized in engineering, science mechanics, and the 'benefit of the future' type of thing. The LAC headquarters were stationed in the East Coast, but a few dozen more smaller headquarters for employing around the US had been stationed, and all of them remained hidden, cloaked, and specially made to be kept a secret, like their own little Area 51's. Not even the twins were entirely sure where they might be, and to be honest, have never been in one and never will. Much to their disappointment, of course. Their parents could never decide on whether or not it was time to tell the kids what kind of fascinating stuff they were working on next, they just kept it locked and hidden away. Even if the young adults were good at sneaking around cameras and high-tech equipment already since they had lived in just that type of a house that needs the security, they had never been able to locate one. Eventually, they gave up on their conquests and their sneaks into their parents' room around their teens as soon as they realized it just wasn't going to happen.

What we know, I mean you guys, the people reading these words, and I, the narrator, know something they don't. Or, rather, we know something will undeniably happen, that will turn their high-tech, LAC, future world on it's head. And probably the rest of the world, too.

"...you see anything?" Nikki called lazily from the back seat.

"...Nah."

"Well someone lied."

"Oh be quiet."

The car was rumbling, vibrating her back against the seat, making her nose tingle ever so slightly. Closing her eyes a little couldn't hurt. No noise, nothing except for the steady hum and crunching of the road below. In no time at all she felt her eyes begin to glue shut. Everything was so slow, so hot...

_ So blurry._

_ She could hear muffled voices, but none of them seemed to come from the same place, country-wise. Different accents and speech slips, but she could make out absolutely none of the words. A rough American voice was yelling, and she heard a loud explosion that seemed to brighten her surroundings. As the dust cleared, an outline of a phenomenally large man in red and a smaller man in white and red carrying something that looked like something you might find within the cavernous halls of a LAC headquarters._

_ The huge man whipped out something black and large from his back, yelled something heavily-Russian, and began firing. Large cascades of bullets were sent raining upon the dream-like battle, they were a few clad in blue that lay dead but she couldn't make out what they were like._

_ Suddenly, she fell. Pain rocketed through her like the bullets, and she felt herself hit the ground with a muffled _thud. _Someone was calling her name._

"_Nikki!" They were just out of the corner of her eye...was that the swishing of a white coat? Or maybe just another torrent of bullets._

"_Niiiikkii!" She felt a prod. But the white man wasn't nearly that close to touch her._

"NIKKI!" Jolting out of her sleep, Nikki sat up, nearly breaking her neck and squealing a little at the surprise.

"Wha...what is it?" Her heart was pumping blood at the speed of a jackrabbit. That can't be healthy.

"Dammit...did you slip into a small coma?" Her brother demanded. "I was shouting in your ear!"

"I...you were?"

"Yeah, and I had to poke you a couple times; I was about to use a frikkin' megaphone. God."

Nikki laughed and breathed through her nose, exhaling through her mouth a couple times to get rid of the pounding sensation in her ears. It worked after a while.

"Hey...why did we stop?"

Her brother smirked and jerked a thumb to the window of the front seat. "Toldya I wasn't lying." It was true. His thumb pointed to a dinky, small, rustic gas station, quite literally in the middle of nowhere, since all the hills and red mountains were gone, left with cracked ground and sand. Though it was small, with only one station available for gas, and the building itself looking ancient and rusted beyond it's former glory, the blinking neon sign determined that the place was indeed open. It must be in business if it has electricity running to it.

"Sammy and son's." She read, squinting a little to get a better view of the peeling white paint on the sign.

"I think they oughta have something for us. Maybe even recommend where the nearest hotel is." Eddie said as he got out of the car. "Ohhh yeah." The young man stretched his legs and groaned in appreciation. "That's good." Nikki soon followed suit.

A bell tinkled as they entered the glass door. The rest of the store looked exactly as it did on the outside: Old, run-down, yet keeping it together through some force of nature. An old wooden counter held a small, old man with a beard to rival Albus Dumbledore's, a cash machine, and a ringable bell.

It appeared the white-haired, long mustached man had fallen asleep, his bony hand supporting his cheek. The snores and the creaking of a slow ceiling fan were all the sounds in the small shop.

"Well, at least it's cooler." Nikki whispered, careful not to wake the man. She made her way over to him.

"'Scuse me? Sir?"

The man stayed asleep.

"...Sir?" She repeated, a little louder.

No dice.

"He's not really answering." She called over to her brother, who was looking at the selection of beef jerky.

"I can hear that. Hey, d'ya think I should get barbecue'd beef or roasted?" He held up the two bags, shaking them, "Or, why don't we just take both? We'll need it, most likely, and one bag is never enough."

Eddie's smile disappeared once he fully looked at his sister's expression. "...whhhat?"

"So...you're not even worried?"

"Worried abooout...what?"

She sighed. "This guy!" It's like he's comatose, or dead, or something!"

"Oh, we'll just leave the money on the counter...must be somethin' in the air today. People like falling asleep around here."

"Ed, I'm serious!"

"Ugh, whatever. Okay." Eddie gathered the jerky into one hand and went over to where the old man stood. First, Eddie proceeded to poke him, which earned him a glare from his sister.

"It worked with you."

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Let's..." Nikki wasn't sure what they were going to do, but then, she layed eyes on the counter bell. She couldn't remember what had woken her up or what the dream was even about, but something loud and sharp could do it. "Let's ring the bell. See if that does anything." Eddie looked at her quizzically, then tapped the bell, which emitted something of a tinkling noise. To their surprise, the old man immediately shook himself awake, snorting and wiping at some spittle on him mouth and his beard.

"What's the password?"

"...what?" Was the reply the twins gave in unison.

The old man repeated, again, slower, "What's the password?"

Nikki raised an eyebrow. "Is...isn't this a shop?"

"'Course it is, honey. What's the password?"

"...Uhmm...give us a moment, will ya?" Eddie said rather confused and walked to the far edge of the shop, dragging Nikki along the shoulder.

"So, what exactly have we stumbled upon here?" Ed whispered, careful not to let the man hear, whom of which was patiently waiting, twiddling his thumbs.

"Well, I dunno, I thought you said this was a _gas station?_"

"I did!"

"Then...what do we do?"

"I was going to ask you the same exact thing, dude."

"Arrgh...you think he might be crazy? Maybe one of those weirdos who puts up a private shop, or maybe..." Nikki smiled mischievously, a spark lighting her icy eyes, "a secret meeting place?"

"Oh come on...you're not seriously thinking this leads to some sort of conspiracy, do you?"

"Well, I dunno bro, we live in a secret scientist society that has security so high it's higher than the white house. What do you think?"

Eddie bit the inside of his cheek. It was hard to think on what they should do.

On one hand, the old man looked harmless, if he tried to do anything two perfectly healthy, fit, and slightly-trained young adults could take him. However, if he had a weapon, that was a different matter. He couldn't allow his sister to get hurt, and he didn't exactly have multiple lives to go around. Of course, they could always try to see if they get the password right, just to see if they can, and for the heck of it. They were never allowed to explore any conspiracies by their parents, so what's to keep them from doing it now?

This sudden spark of resistance against their restrictions gave him the courage to suggest they should try it, and that they could take him and his weapons, if he has any.

Nikki looked at the old man, still patiently waiting. "..."

"Yeah, I think you're right. Come on."

The twins, satisfied with their decision, straightened themselves up and walked briskly to the counter. The old man looked up and smiled kindly.

"So, what's the password, my young folks?"

Eddie stared hard at him, then asked, "Can you...give us a riddle?"

The elder looked quite surprised, and then grinned, his mustache bouncing. "No one's ever asked me that before, but since you two are new 'round here, and I have a good feeling about you, I'll spare ya."

"He took a breath through his long nose. "Here goes: What's something you wear for fun and for fashion, but sometimes you wear it to keep you head from crashin'. What's the thing that keeps you cool at day and the sun from your eyes, Helps you with snipin', even, sometimes. The type of thing that's a spoil of War, and the type of thing that you snap back cause you're 'sooo hardcore'. This a thing you wear in only one place, reaching to the sky yet covers your face. Combine these riddles together and tell me that, what completes these sentences together is a...?"

They both stared at him.

"Re...Repeat that again?" Eddie blinked, his head tumbling.

The old man guffawed. "Alrighty, then, my hard-of-hearin' friend." He repeated, slower.

Nikki had a slight idea, but it was stupid. It was way too dumb.

"Sunglasses?" Eddie guessed, shrugging. The old man shook his head.

"One try down, you got two more."

"Umm...A hoodie?"

That idea etched in her brain. It was so simple.

"Nah, honey. One more left."

Nikki gulped. Eddie looked at her. The riddle seemed so easy. I mean, it had to be, right? It ended in a rhyme.

Finally, Nikki dared to utter her small idea. "A...a hat?"

The old man, to everyone's surprised, whooped and hollered. "Yes! We gotta couple new kids in Tuefort, and boy will they be surprised as all hell!"

Eddie blinked and stammered, "Wait...a HAT?" That's it?"

"...Tuefort?" Nikki repeated.

"Yup. Ridiculous, ain't it?" The old man slapped his knee, "But hey, you don't have anything planned in advance, do ya? Cause you might wanna back off now if you ain't into a little chaos."

Adventure seemed to bubble in the air. Excitement filled both of their lungs and their heads. The California trip was shunted aside; it could _definitely _wait.

"Oh don't worry, we haven't-" Nikki started, but Eddie seemed to be thinking along her lines.

"Got anything planned."

The old man grinned, getting up from the counter and pushing open a side-door in the counter that allows an easy exit. However, instead of going out, he invited the twins to come in.

They did, though Eddie kept an eye on the man. Spoiled the mood a little, yes, but he had to if his sister wasn't.

The elder led them through a back door, painted so it matched the wall. They hadn't even noticed it was there. He fumbled with some keys in his pants pocket before muttering an exclamation and pulling a brass key out and inserting it in, turning the knob, and opened the door.

The twins stared in absolute surprise. The man just stood there smiling broadly.

"Like it? It was my son's creation. My boy Dell's always been the genius of the family."

Thousands of wires, lining the narrow walls of the hallway, came together to line the back of what looked like a raised circle, some sort of pedestal at the end of the hall. The pedestal glowed a strange, purple light. Flickering lights lining the circle glowed, seemingly without a pattern. There was a podium with a small selection of knobs and buttons, all of which looked confusing.

It was like they had stepped straight from the Pioneer age, given the shop, to year 5000. Even they hadn't seen something this sleek and strange as this.

They were apparently staring for a while, because the old man gestured his hand to the entrance. "Go on, friends. Just step on it, only one at a time, otherwise, your atoms'll mix up, or whatever my Dell said, and we wouldn't want that happening." His face crinkled in a smile from his self-made joke.

Nikki spluttered, "This a..a _portal?_"

"Indeed. Ladies first, as always." He nodded. Nikki looked from her brother to the hall, then back to her brother again.

She could do this.

Nikki made the step forward and into the hallway. It was chilly, and goose flesh spread out across her bare skin from her tank top. As the portal inched closer to her, she got the distinct feeling cameras were being trained on her and her every move.

Finally, there it was in front of her. It was perhaps three feet across, not too big. It almost looked like a decoy her parents sometimes set out to catch them when they tried sneaking around. However, she couldn't afford to chicken out. Who was the one always itching for adventure and excitement? Her.

She took a steadying breath, and stepped on with both feet.

She turned to face the doorway, the door still open. She could still see her brothers face, at least, for only a few seconds.

Then her world flickered to black.

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**Yeah, this is pretty damn weird. Oh well.**

**Don't worry. I have a story planned out. This is all going somewhere.**


	2. A Double Kill

**This is a bit shorter than I would like...but here it is anyways. And also, I'm making a few changes. I'm switching some relationships around than the original comics, their personalities might be a little different, such as the BLU Scout being a little more of a bully and RED Scout being mainly driven by his emotions, stuff like that. Also, I haven't really read much into TF2 since the wiki, so there might be some inconsistencies. **

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Scout didn't dare breath. Couldn't that fatty blue giant just move outta the freaking way already?

RED Scout was stuck behind a pile of wooden boxes after a close run with a Demo, and was pretty proud of himself for escaping those damn sticky bombs for once, that was until he realized that, between the patrolling Demo, still looking around corridors for poor Scout, and the BLU Heavy blocking the way forward with his bulk, he had essentially trapped himself. Unless someone came in and rescued him, _god forbid _he was caught in this embarrassing situation, he was gonna die for sure, unless his lanky frame could fit in between BLU Heavy's legs.

Wait...maybe that could actually work! Fatso can't risk shooting off his junk, and he's fast enough, maybe he can actually make it through.

Yeah, he thought sighing to himself, this is the most awkward battle plan in the history of the _universe. _

Scout risked a peek around the boxes from his small corner. BLU Heavy was standing up straight, which of course meant his bald head grazed the ceiling. His legs...well...maybe if he sucked in a little...

No time to waste. He had to do this. He could get sent to respawn, and besides, that huge freakin' metal crank of a gun he adored could make the death quick. The Intel was just around that corner.

On the count of three he'd run for it.

One. He readied himself, crouching into a position so he could easily spring out and turned towards the Heavy.

Two. Deep breath...

THREE!

He started running, as soon as the imaginary number rang off in his head, practically crashing through the pile of boxes, but the sensation of running was replaced with the sensation of being blown to absolute bits.

BLU Heavy just stared while Scout's blood was spattered over the wall, and chunks of his body.

"Eheheh...lad couldn't see a bomb comin' if it was timed for thirty seconds...which it was, by th' way." He said to the near-nonexistant corpse.

"Leetle boy was hiding?" Heavy blinked.

Demo groaned, "Yeh, and the boy didn' even realize he was exposed to me th' entire time an' I coulda jus' thrown somethin' over there and he wouldn't notice! Talk abou' a dumb genius." The bomb expert unhinged a bottle at his hip and took a swig. Heavy shook his head, not fazed by the gore.

"Vonder vhat tiny RED vas doing running toward Heavy."

"Who cares? A' least he didn't get the REAL intel, tha' ones a fake." He gestured one thick finger towards the end of the hallway, and was about to take another swig of the concoction before , of course, he got bloodily whacked in the head and a sickening **CRACK** echoed in the hall, the unmistakable sound of a baseball bat hitting bone. Heavy's immediate reaction was to start firing and charging toward the source of the bat, while Scout's reaction was to start hauling ass.

"THANKS FOR THE INFO, CYCLOPS!" Scout yelled behind him as he ran out of the building with the speed of a cheetah being chased by a two-ton blue-clad maniac with a mini gun.

* * *

RED Spy wasn't doing too well.

To start, he had a gash in his side, deep as his hand and as bleeding all over his new suit, his eye was slashed slightly along with his balaclava, and his body felt like it was on fire, which it had been, a few minutes ago, until he used the last of his energy to stamp it out, since that run-in with the trigger-happy Pyro.

That BLU piss-poor excuse of a spy had done this to him. However, He had managed to slash his neck with a shard of glass that came from the shattered window BLU Spy had previously jumped through. Unfortunately, he was left in this state, calling for Medic as loud as he could, in a pile of glass on the floor of a small warehouse. The glass cut into his shoulder, but he needed to get up, if he could get out of here. He didn't think anyone would hear him in here.

He propped himself up on his left elbow, the side that wasn't injured, and tried to sit up. The slashed skin crinkled around the wound and slid on itself and made him shudder in pain. Blood poured with every heartbeat, and he felt weaker and weaker as the moments ticked on silently. He would be whisked off to Respawn in just a matter of seconds. If he truly couldn't get up, maybe he could just suffer through it until it ended. Fortunately, he didn't need to.

Seemingly solid tendrils of red wrapped around his waist and his head. It felt as if he was taking a breath of pure energy. Everything in him felt complete and whole and renewed. The skin over his wound sewed itself shut like a reverse of a video tape. His eyes could move around without shooting a wave of pain and nausea through his head.

He got up, breathing, and straightened over his (slightly blackened) suit, and picked at the hole where the slash had been and the tear over his eye in his balaclava.

"Ahh...I'm going to 'ave to fix zhis _again..._what a chore..."

"I just saved you from two extra minutes of excruciating of pain and you respond by mulling over your suit. You're velcome." The thick German accent belonged to Medic, Spy's...friend/enemy for a while now. At least today, he was glad to see him.

"Oh I'm grateful, I just have more important zhings to to take car of, besides my newly-healed wounds, and, zhank you for zhat. Zhat whole scene was _very_ humiliating." Spy chuckled, inspecting his body for any other tears.

"I guess zhe next zhing I should do for you is run out and get a new pair of gloves, since zhose are a bit too dirty for _your highness." _Medic's voice dripped with sarcasm.

Spy narrowed his eyes. "Hey. I just happen to care about my appearance, unlike _some _of you." Medic shook his head with a small laugh.

"Interesting man, you are, Spy, and I DO care, I just don't bounce around vith cologne vafting off of me from every direction, zhat's all."

Spy just rolled his eyes, but then something stopped them both in their tracks. A small vibration shivered their bones, starting from their toes going all the way to their skulls. They didn't shake visibly, but they both felt it. Sounds of battle seemed to quiet for a moment, then continue as usual.

It felt like an electric shock.

"You felt zhat?" Medic said to his colleague, a bit quieter than normal. Spy just nodded. The doctor exhaled through his nose. "Vell, ve'd better get moving. No use standing around making small talk." Again, the Spy nodded and followed Medic out of the warehouse out onto the scenes of battle.

Scout's chest felt like it was going to explode by the time he finally slowed down, which wasn't often, mind you. Thankfully, the fatty had quit halfway, given his energy level just wasn't as amazing as his.

Once he reached the inside of the RED base, he rested his hands on his knees and panted. He could probably puke up right there. He didn't, thankfully, and straightened himself up. He heard the familiar ear-scrapingly loud voice around somewhere. He heard snatches of "DIE MAGGOTS" and such.

He had to get this to Soldier. It wasn't particularly his job to find out information, but to hell with it. Using his ears, it seemed Soldier was running around chasing his counterpart with his rockets. Scout willed his legs to not give out on him, since they felt like jelly. He could use some Bonk, but he had foolishly used them out in the morning, but got a couple kills in the process. Scout sped toward the east side, and as he got closer the sound of BLU Scout's taunts grew more and more colorful and Soldier seemed to be having a rage party of one.

His concentration on the sounds seemed to have abandoned him, because he ran head-first into Soldier, who had just come into the hallway from the large room, which is where Scout was intending to go, and both crashed into each other comically. The angry little mercenary bounced over Scout as they hit the floor and landed somewhere over him; he was too dizzy to really know.

As his vision cleared the face of a smug-ass filled his eyesight, and he wished that just for once, the ex-nazi would pour bleach down his eyes or something. Now, apparently, Soldier wasn't chasing him, _he _was fucking chasing _Soldier._

Nice.

The BLU raised his bat, ready to smash Scout's head in and finish Soldier off afterwards, but the RED thought quickly and whipped out his Force-a-nature. The shot fired pummeled into BLU Scout's chest and sent him flying back, the RED a short distance also. Scout landed on his feet back in the hallway, but the counterpart wasn't so lucky. The force had sent him back into the wall so hard, it had either KO'd him or killed him off. He couldn't tell, and he didn't care.

"Let's send this brotha back ta respawn." He said to himself, a bit more macho than he would like to admit, and walked over to him calmly, patting his bat in his palm ready to snap his neck clean.

The guy wasn't out, not just yet. As RED Scout's shadow loomed over the unconscious body, much like a duplicate of what was happening before, the BLU's eyes snapped open. Just as the bat was coming down, it hit hard on something metal. The other Scout's bat.

BLU Scout jumped up and whipped his bat out again, ready to strike. "Nice try, bud. Maybe next time ya should finish the' job a little quicker, huh?"

The bat came down on his knees but Scout jumped up quicker than it could hit, avoiding it. He retaliated by backing up and slashing at the BLU's head, missing by only inches."Oh shut the hell up, ya bastard. Ya wouldn't know the first two things about killin' if it crushed a Bonk can on yo' face!"

"At least I'm tougher than YOU, eh, mama's boy?" He taunted, making Scout go nearly as red as his shirt. The BLU waved the bat, convinced he gotten through to him.

Scout growled, giving another torrent of bat-hits, one actually making contact with the BLU's thigh, sending him sideways. A grin cracked on Scout's face, "HA!" This time, BLU Scout took a little longer to get up, seemingly calm, or as calm as the egotistical little dumbass can get.

"Oh come on, man. Are you _seriously_ going to say, to my face, you aren't justa puny rat who follows Ma's orders? Think outta the box. Rebel a little. She doesn't love ya nearly _that_ much, she hooked up with our Spy, after all-" He didn't have time to laugh, before making the mistake of letting his guard down. There was a _ckra-__**crunch **_as Scout's bat made contact square in the temple. The smug face went blank and the counterpart crumpled to the ground, his head pooling blood on the floor.

Scout's chest was heaving, his face draining of anger as he let his bat hit the floor.

"_Remember Nathan, it's nevah good to letya emotions get the better of ya. Ya'd end up losin' control, god only knows what'll happen then."_

His Ma's words echoed in his head as he stared at his blood-spattered bat. But this time he was just doing his job. He was _supposed_ to kill him. That's what he was born and trained for. It's grisly, but Ma, sometimes anger is the best thing you can have. At least in some situations.

His train of thought was interrupted by a strange vibration sent up through his body, like a major chill. His head snapped up, eyes away from the BLU.

There it was again.

It happened once while he was running, but he assumed that was just the wind. However, everyone else noticed it too, as they had stopped in confusion, but he just ignored it and kept on going. This couldn't be a coincidence, it was too...creepy. And he had a feeling in his gut, and his gut was never wrong.

He rubbed his arms, gooseflesh suddenly breaking out on his skin. He needed to get to Soldier and wake him up. Scout jogged over to the hall where Soldier was lying, upside-down from the major crash earlier.

If he was going to figure out a way to wake him up, he didn't need to. Two clenched fists suddenly shot up in the air, one after the other.

"Take THAT. Aaand THAT. And-" He came to his senses and realized his squat little body was on the ground, and not trying to fight the BLU Scout. "Uhh..." The Soldier sat up, taking a look around, then realized his colleague was right behind him. He promptly jumped up, looking absolutely confused no more, and began to shout in his usual ear splitting voice, "SKINNY MAGGOT! What happened?!"

"BLU Scout tried t' kill ya an' I got in the way. But listen-" Scout raised his hands up, trying to calm the Soldier down.

"WHAT! Why I oughta pummel that runt back into the soil! It's just plain un-American to attack your opponents while they're out-"

Scout felt a twinge of annoyance, considering that if he had just attacked at the right time while the BLU was out, or pretending to be anyways, it would've saved them a lot of time. He shouted over the Soldier's yelling, "Th' intel we were goin' for wazza fake! It's somewhere else!"

Soldier looked absolutely dumbfounded. "That's impossible! Where could they have moved it?"

Scout groaned, "How could I know?"

"You found out ONE bit of info, now tell me where it is!"

"How would I even know?! Dat cyclops was just muttering somethin' an I killed him before he could say anything else!"

"YOU DUMBASS!"

Scout did nothing but bring him palm and cover his face with it, groaning, and wondering how in the world he was going to be appreciated at this rate. These knuckleheads couldn't see what a great help he was.

"HUDDA **HUDDA!"** There was very distinct sound of a muffled, high voice through a gas mask around the doorway. Pyro came running into the room. How it managed to find them was as much of a mystery as itself.

Scout raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, Pyro?" The Pyro waved it's arms in the air, screaming something too loud and muffed to be discerned. It looked to be in considerable distress.

"Sccsht PLSHHH!" There was note of fear that he hadn't ever heard in Pyro's voice before. I mean, he never spent any time with the thing, but it wasn't...he didn't even think it COULD feel any other emotion but sadistic glee.

Something in Scout's stomach went cold. Even Soldier was quiet. The Pyro seemed to be almost sobbing behind it's mask.

"Pyro...?"

Finally, the Pyro seemed to let out a cry of exhasperation and marched over to Scout, grabbing him roughly by the arm and dragging him hard.

"HEY!" The Pyro paid no attention. Scout looked back to Soldier, but it seemed the veteran had gotten the message faster than him and followed silently, which was unlike him.

The firebug dragged them past the hall, out into the back entrance, where he quietly crept out into an alley, instructing them to do the same.

Once they reached their destination, a medium-sized cubby-hole in the back of the base for the mercenaries to hide in whenever they needed a quick getaway, Pyro stopped.

Scout looked over it's left shoulder, Soldier on its right.

There, on the blood-stained ground, red still seeping in, there were two unfamiliar bodies, their chests split open and a very, very bloody ax on the ground beside them.

All Pyro did was stare.


End file.
